Thursday, February 10, 2011

Stupid People

I'm ready for the backlash, I'm ready for the disagreement that this post will likely cause. I'm OK with it. I gotta get this off of my chest. This will be the most negative post I've written to date, and maybe the most negative post I'll ever write. There are stupid people that are in society and by virtue of that, there are stupid people that work for us.

As my good friend Forest Gump's mother stated, " Stupid is as stupid does" I like it and I've quoted it many times. Stupid people are not people who disagree with me or have ideas I don't agree with. Stupid people are the people that no matter how many times they are shown, told or otherwise instructed they still don't get it or cannot get it.

You know how many hours I have spent dealing with stupid people? A lot, I've spent time and energy on people that no matter what method or ideology I use on them, they cannot comprehend what is being told to them. They continue to make the same mistake over and over, when challenged they always say, "I didn't know" Really? Even though I told you specifically several times in the last week alone how to do it, you still, "Don't know?"

The sad part is that these people can discuss many things quite intelligently and therefore I know that they have some form of intelligence in their brains. The frustrating part is that I'm not building rockets, I'm not trying to teach them quantum physics. They simply do not want to learn or better yet, refuse to learn. That I cannot handle. I don't care how long you've been doing something, the day comes when every dog needs to learn a new trick or how to do their trick more efficiently.

Thank you for letting me rant, feel free to comment, I'm looking forward to it.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Nothing but applause from me! I'm happy to work with people who try. But if you don't try it only drains resources from those who do. There are a few cases (fortunately not many) where someone simply does not have the inherent ability to do the job despite trying hard. Those are the hardest decisions. But even in those cases, the company must put their resources into an employee who can.

John Howard said...

I have also worked with stupid people, at least I thought I had. I learned early in my career that all those stupid people really aren't stupid; some are just different. I had one lad assigned to my platoon in the Army (many years ago now) that really just didn't get it. Fitz was always wrong. That is, wrong until the day I finally figured it out. Fitz wasn't wrong - he saw the world differently than the rest of us. I learned that when someone made what looked like a stupid mistake to stop a minute and ask myself: "How would Fitz have done this?" I learned to look at the world through other's eyes when the situation called for it - all became better after that.

Voices of Leadership said...

Athelene,

Thanks for commenting and sharing your experiences. I agree, sometimes when you've exhausted all other ways to bring someone on board or educate them, you have to move on. Each situation is different and cannot be handled the same. At the end of the day it comes down to resources and the "bottom line"

Best wishes,
Greg

Voices of Leadership said...

John,

Thank you for commenting. I was hoping that someone would bring this up. I agree with you that sometimes it's not that a person is stupid, they just see things differently. The other thing to consider, is that sometimes it's not them, it's you. Everyone responds differently to how they learn and how the teacher interacts with them. I like the fact that you learned to see things differently, which I'm sure made you a better leader and teacher. Thanks for sharing that, I like it.

Best wishes,
Greg

Bob said...

Half of the world is below average, that's a fact. And for every person in the 99th percintile, there is someone in the 1st percentile.

This applies to all aspects of a persons character and ability, so even the most successfull people can be supremely difficult to deal with on some levels.

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